Black Tide

In Black Tide, we find Lewis Cole - a man with a mysterious past and skills he'd rather not have to call upon - once again facing a corpse. Only this time it's a headless and handless one, spotted bobbing on the Atlantic waves, and once again Lewis's services as an unofficial unraveler of tricky situations are brought into play.

When Lewis chose Tyler Beach, New Hampshire, as the setting for his new life, far removed from the treacheries of the government intelligence agency that once employed him, he expected peace and quiet: the simpler life with an ever-changing ocean view. Yet, suddenly, the waters he loves are fouled by an obviously preventable oil spill. And the viciously mutilated body that floats in on the tide seems another insult to the environment.

How are these events connected? Lewis doesn't suspect that they are - not until he's drawn into doing a peculiar favor for a friend, which involves finding a safe house that's been lost and tracking the whereabouts of a cache of stolen paintings by Winslow Homer, America's most celebrated marine artist.

Without warning, murder strikes again at the seacoast calm and Lewis realizes that the leads he's following are the right ones. But can he prove that one villain has been pulling the strings - and still escape with his life?